Thursday, August 4, 2011

Virginia Sales Tax Holiday

Between August 5th and 7th, the Commonwealth of Virginia provides a Sales Tax Holiday on School Supplies and Clothing. Since this was Zoe's first experience with this process, we had a lot of upfront work to do to prepare for the event.

The first was to get a very good understanding of exactly what did and did not qualify for the sales tax exemption. We are VERY appreciative of the help provided by my State Senator's office (Senator George Barker). They provided a very clear and comprehensive list of all of the items and dollar amounts that qualify for this program! Some very interesting items DO qualify - things like bathing suits and legwarmers! (we don't sell either at Zoe).

Next up was going through the store to determine all of the specific items stocked at Zoe that do qualify. A number of our summer sale items as well as many of our Fall tops are qualified under this program as well as some scarves, belts, and undergarments. Armed with that information, I then contacted my point of sale software company to determine the best way to update the system so that those items ring up with no tax added. They quickly provided me a solution which I have tested to my satisfaction. Now all that is left is to update the system this evening after I close and we will be ready for the event!

I will be very curious to see if the sales tax holiday does bring people shopping in the boutique setting as well as the normal back to school setting such as Staples, Macy's, Kohl's, Target, and Walmart.